Someone you supervise, or a colleague, arrives in your office with a problem -- and the expectation is that it needs to immediately become your problem, and you need to come up with a solution.

Sound familiar?

Many years ago, I read thoughts from Dale Carnegie on how to empower people to solve their own problems. It's simple really, and very effective. He says when someone comes to you with a problem, ask them four questions:

1. What is the problem?
2. What caused the problem?
3. What are some possible solutions to the problem?
4. Which solution do you recommend?

Getting the person to go through this process will nearly solve the problem itself. First, being able to actually define a problem, instead of a symptom or an emotion, is half the work. It's difficult to focus clearly on the problem, and not on a personality, or on who is to blame. But when you can get the person to really focus on the problem and define it, you're halfway to a solution.

 Then the person can more clearly articulate what caused the problem. This is his/her perspective, of course, and you may be able to offer some additional ones. But it's important to let the person articulate thoughts about the cause.

Then when you ask for some possible solutions, it blows away a lot of the emotion, blame, etc., and helps the person think clearly about possibilities. And asking which of the solutions he/she recommends pushes that thinking even further -- helps identify barriers to a solution that might not be seen as long as "someone else" is responsible for fixing the problem.

This was a "great find" for me many years ago. My staff knew that before they came to me I was going to ask them the four questions; and typically before they even came, they had the recommended solution. Often the conversation was more FYI than anything -- to let me know what had happened, what they planned to do about it, and see if I had any reservations, objections or suggestions.

It was beautiful -- and I loved it! It worked for me, for them, for everyone. I highly recommend you try it if you don't use this approach already.

Want to learn more leadership tips like this one and how to incorporate them more into your daily work environment? We would love to have you join Leadership Success Circle. It can help you learn how to work well under pressure. It provides you with this support network that all leaders need. You will find leaders who experience similar barriers and challenges to yours, and together you can find solutions.

Leadership training opportunities are offered in many ways to meet your organization's specific needs and budget. Take a look at our different training approaches, including these On-Demand traning courses:

• Supervisor 101
• Bringing Out the Best in You and Others
• Managing Staff in Stressful Times: Celebrations and Challenges of Leading Multiple Generations
• Dealing With Difficult People
• Creating a Culture of Customer Service Excellence
• The Healthy Leader: Learning to Lead Yourself